I think a better question would be based on having watched Pirates of Silicon Valley (but then again I'm old school)
Or read The Soul of a New Machine.
A Simple Filter to Weed Out Non-technical Co-founders
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Re: A Simple Filter to Weed Out Non-technical Co-founders
#12You want to qualify your relationship with a founder based solely on the answer to a single question about a popular Hollywood flick?
For these types of decisions (picking co-founders, hiring, etc.) you want no false positives, which means that any legitimate red flag should be a deal-breaker. The cost of passing on the right person is far less than the cost of saying yes to the wrong one (e.g. passing over a good biz dev guy who goes on to succeed at another start-up vs. hiring a jerk who ruins your business then sues you)
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Re: A Simple Filter to Weed Out Non-technical Co-founders
#13Hang on, there are people who watched that movie and sympathized with the Winkelvii? They were a cartoon character playing up every negative stereotype of old money that exists.
That's like someone sympathizing with the villain from Die Hard or something.
Re: A Simple Filter to Weed Out Non-technical Co-founders
#14You want to qualify your relationship with a founder based solely on the answer to a single question about a popular Hollywood flick?
For these types of decisions (picking co-founders, hiring, etc.) you want no false positives, which means that any legitimate red flag should be a deal-breaker. The cost of passing on the right person is far less than the cost of saying yes to the wrong one (e.g. passing over a good biz dev guy who goes on to succeed at another start-up vs. hiring a jerk who ruins your business then sues you)
I think we're going to have to agree to disagree on this one.
"passing on the right person" = is often the difference between success and failure.
"the cost of saying yes to the wrong one" = A few weeks wasted, and start over.
Whatever you do, please don't write people off with one question. Engage with them, build relationships and draw out their best. Has worked for me. Zuck or Winkle, really does not matter.
Re: A Simple Filter to Weed Out Non-technical Co-founders
#15Great idea. I actually weed out potential co-founders by asking if they side with the Imperial base commander or the Ewoks. If that doesn't work, I ask them if they're more of a Thelma or a Louise.
Edit: let's not forget Alien vs. Predator. I don't want a guy who takes forever stalking an idea. Execution is everything, and nothing executes like a chestbursting alien.
Re: A Simple Filter to Weed Out Non-technical Co-founders
#16I think a better question would be based on having watched Pirates of Silicon Valley (but then again I'm old school)
Who's the equivalent of the Winklevoss brothers in Pirates of Silicon Valley? I thought everyone looked fairly good there.
Re: A Simple Filter to Weed Out Non-technical Co-founders
#17You want to qualify your relationship with a founder based solely on the answer to a single question about a popular Hollywood flick?
It's the same as weeding out programmers by starting with the FizzBuzz question. For it to be worthwhile, you need to be interviewing a lot of potential candidates.
Re: A Simple Filter to Weed Out Non-technical Co-founders
#18Here are somethings to watch out to weed out non-technical people in my experience:
- he says I just need someone to finish the coding part and thinks 90% is done without it
- he wants you to sign NDA before telling anything about the product (remember if someone can steal your idea by just talking about it then its probably not a good idea, tell him that)
- he does not know enough about common stuff that a startup guy should be aware of, like sxsw, techmeme, hacker news, names of top influencers/bloggers in the industries (scoble, arrington, mg, laporte, dhh.... throw these names out and watch his reaction)
Re: A Simple Filter to Weed Out Non-technical Co-founders
#19Do you honestly feel that your idea is far more valuable than my ability to build it (which I could do in about 4 hours)?
is the shortcut you are talking about?
also, as a lot of people are talking about here, a pop culture question (ultimatum?) isn't really appropriate for filtering out anything (except maybe pop culture).
E: comma and spelling, geez
Re: A Simple Filter to Weed Out Non-technical Co-founders
#20I think a better question would be based on having watched Pirates of Silicon Valley (but then again I'm old school)
Who's the equivalent of the Winklevoss brothers in Pirates of Silicon Valley? I thought everyone looked fairly good there.
The point of the Winklevoss twins is that they aren't techies which may be why I liked that silly made for TV movie so damn much!